How I have become a wizard *

„First days were quite a challenge, because I had to adapt to a different time zone, furthermore it was incredibly humid and stuffy. Moreover I had to find a room really fast, which was not easy in this period of time– most of the landlords expect 12-month lease. Despite adversity, I managed.

Now I can say that everything is fine. I have an apartment and since Tuesday I’ve started an internship at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge. I work as a programmer responsible for development of algorithms connected to speech analysis (e.g. translation of messages posted on French websites to English + analysis of what has been said: sense of the statement, participating people, geographical locations).

United States of America are biiig, the roads are big, streets, cars, buildings and distances. On the other hand, the States are a mix of places, which make you dizzy and places that have a historic character like churches (Boston is a city with a long tradition). So far I have visited Boston Red Socks stadium, a part of Harvard University, Boston University and a famous shopping mall – Prudential Center. I was impressed by Boston Bay.

 As for curiosities, I can say, that electronic messages, e-mails, were invented in Raytheon BBN Technologies (strictly speaking, it was  BBN Technologies then) . We owe the @ sign to Mr. Ray Tomlison, who invented the sign to separate the user name from the domain theiy belong to.

* There is a painting/ relief next to the entrance to the company saying: “Where wizards work” and its true, that’s where the magic happens.”